Tag Archives: U.S. House of Representatives

If the 2014 congressional election started today (I found a page
showing incumbent Congressman Derek Kilmer has raised $15.55 so far. I’m
guessing the total is actually more than that, but we have nothing
official yet.) here is a campaign charge you might hear.

“Derek Kilmer has voted with his party 97 percent of the
time.”

Or maybe this one:

“Derek Kilmer has voted with Nancy Pelosi nine out of 10
times.”

Both quotes are true, but they lack context. There have been 30
votes in the U.S. House of Representatives since Kilmer joined it
earlier this month. Some are procedural and don’t deal with issues
at all, like voting to approve Congress’ journal or to adjourn. If
either of those mattered we might hear this one:

“Doc Hastings was the only Washington member of Congress
with the guts to vote to adjourn.”

We’ve addressed this before, but it’s worth repeating. Context
matters. Of the 30 votes taken in Congress, the two parties agreed
with each other 11 times. Again, those were procedural issues. The
first vote after the roll call was on who should be named House
speaker. Republicans voted for John Boehner. Kilmer voted with
Democrats for Nancy Pelosi. That shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.
Kilmer is a Democrat, after all, and he wanted to see his party’s
leader holding the gavel. Everyone knew it wouldn’t happen and it
didn’t.

On the other 19 votes, many were questions on the same issue,
and Kilmer agreed with the majority in his party on all but one of
them.

That one is critical. Of the 30 votes taken, two were considered
“key votes” in the Washington
Post vote database. One was the race for speaker. I
guess I agree that one probably should be considered “key,” but not
like the other one on the list of two. That was the one to suspend
the debt limit until May and to suspend Congressional pay starting
April 15 if there is no budget. On that one a majority of
Republicans voted “Yes,” and a majority of Democrats voted “No.”
Kilmer, in this case sided with Republicans. He issued a statement
saying why he thought the measure was a good one.

“I believe America should pay its bills even if they were
racked up before I came to DC. This plan prevents the immediate
threat of default that could cause harm to our nation’s economy.
Hopefully, this is the first step toward a real bipartisan effort
to forge a balanced solution to our long-term fiscal challenges.
This plan also forces Congress to live by the same principle that
all folks in our region live by: if you don’t do your job, you
shouldn’t be paid. I’m supporting this bill today because I’ve
always said I’ll do what’s right for the families and employers of
our region, regardless of whether it’s a Democratic or Republican
idea.”

Kilmer wasn’t alone among Washington Democrats, joining fellow
freshmen Denny Heck and Suzan DelBene. Jaime Herrera Beutler, a
Camas Republican, voted contrary to her party on
the same vote.

Just as it’s almost worthless to draft statistics that include
meaningless votes on procedure, it’s way too early to form
conclusions on a voting record that only includes two votes that
seem to matter. Nonetheless, stay tuned to the “key” votes tally
and see if bipartisanship spreads.